Behind the “new dealership” post
On March 1, a news-like story appeared on Allpar’s weblog, accompanied by a photo labelled “February 1939.”
The story was written on a whim, based the photo:
- To be vaguely believable, I had to think up some good points of the old dealerships – like being cozy.
- Because the dealership had a Dodge/ Plymouth sign, the story had to explain the re-appearance of Plymouth and lack of Chrysler. That was easy. I’ve written before about the tainted Chrysler name.
- Since it was black and white, I had to mention that cars were to be sold only in shades of gray (“One color is good enough for Steve Jobs and Sergio Marchionne.”) Henry Ford, of course, did quite well with black (and with Dodge Brothers components).
- Ram had to be written out, because it wasn’t invented until 2010, and was based on a nameplate that didn’t appear until decades after all dealerships were in color.
I called the new dealerhip plan Project Deuteronomy, but I should have used Leviticus. Nobody would ever really associate car dealers with Leviticus. (“Before you can operate your dealership, you have to follow thousands of arcane rules that require you to go to a place that no longer exists and sacrifice one tenth of your dealer stock. Oh, and these are the times when your vehicles are unclean and must be washed according to ritual BN-040542 with Special Tool PN32123455.”)
The article was quickly distributed across numerous forums outside of allpar (and at allpar). The allpar forum thread resulted in some changes, including the list of new car colors (“Extremely Dark White” was my idea, the others were more subtle) and the disclaimer at the bottom.
Most postings seemed very sincere. People really wanted to know if it was true, and most of them wanted it to be true. (I’d like parts to be true, too.) Few of those who posted it thought it could be a joke, and around half or more just thought Allpar’d gotten its wires crossed. Some bitter, nasty people who responded apparently felt that way, sneering “you can’t trust Allpar,” which in this case was valid but unfair. (Our track record is better than most, and our errors are often the result of Chrysler’s own press releases being inaccurate).
Most of the comments, though, focused on the content of the story. Usually it just took a few replies to get to the truth of the matter, but discussions still focused mainly on the return of Plymouth, mostly with favor. Some critiqued or praised the new dealership plan and marketing. None seemed to approve of the choice of colors. Also, nobody pointed out the photo caption.
I don’t know what this says about Chrysler’s image. Given the boycotts against the company and the level of ignorance of many car buyers, renaming Chrysler to Plymouth would probably increase sales, but it’s pretty unlikely, even if Plymouth does have more commonly, positively remembered nameplates. Personally I’d love it, and not just for convenience – people would always know when I was writing about the company vs the brand.
The dark brick dealerships … I’m not so sure. I like the retro look but the cars in the picture were pushing it. Though if they were available today in nice colors…
I learned a few things.
- Next time, I’ll wait until April 1. To me it was five minutes of fun, but I’m afraid I got a lot of hopes up.
- Chrysler guys, if you’re listening, now might be a good time to think about Plymouth again — and to try harder to get the message across — you’re alive and planning to stay that way, you’re not majority-owned by the government or by Fiat, and you’re not run by the UAW (though I don’t know why that makes people angry). Oh, and you’re going to pay back the loans. People need to know that.
- I should be more careful with the microphone, like Johnny Fever telling Cincinatti residents to dump their trash on the City Hall lawn. Oops.
- This was a reflection on today’s world — a weblog here can be posted to lots of forums elsewhere for comment. (I have to make our own forums more popular, don’t I?) But why didn’t anyone just ask me if it was true? I would have answered, really!
Mainly, I saw a lot of love for Plymouth, some hatred, true, but mainly love and hope and people still trying to hang onto what’s left. Oh, and a lot of people who had fun with it… once they realized what it was.
Egads, now what am I going to do on April 1?
I can’t believe anyone getting half way through the article didn’t realize is was done tongue-in-cheek. Oh well, never underestimate people. I guess even I’ve been guilty of flying off the handle and making things into something more serious than it really was.
is the Plymouth thing true or what???
Deuteronomy raised my eyebrows, but the colors told me it was in jest. Good stuff.
You have really set the expectations high for April 1 though…
The gamut of answers received to the earlier posting only indicates the course of the cross section of people that do read the site postings. That said, it is just hard to conceive that anyone could have thought it was an actual happening! Mike…… are you being real?
Plymouth? I don’t think it will ever happen. Dead as a Doodoo and will remain so. Not that I don’t think about it and would support it, should it ever revive. Chrysler Corporation would have been far better off if it had given the support lavished on Dodge over to the Plymouth division. Those guys were the innovatators. They also made the sales, even in the face of intramural competition from it’s own sister division.
Plymouth was the volume brand (at least up til Reliant/Acclaim),letting it wither and die was a huge mistake.Chrysler sales today would be far higher with their “volume” brand still alive.The trouble started when Chrysler denied Plymouth a Caravelle replacement (with the Dynasty/New Yorker body),and no LH car (Vision/Intrepid/Concorde).And the loss of the original minivan (Job #1 was a Voyager) was a huge blow to the company that relies on the minivan more than any other.Daimler did Chrysler a major disservice.One that should have been corrected years ago.
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Agree totally with Paul, with the following cavet: Plymouth started it’s decline when Walter Chrysler left the Corporation in the hands of K.T. Keller. Keller even called Plymouth “Dodge’s little brother.” Totally wrong, of course, but that is how HE saw it. He was, then, running the company. His origins came through Dodge, and Dodge Main, having no real association with the Plymouth brand. Not that Keller deliberately ran Plymouth into the ground. He didn’t do that, of course. However, when push came to shove in decisions about who got what, it was Dodge that always got the nod. Even when it was obvious that Plymouth suffered for it! Up through the early 50s, Dodge NEVER had the sales to compete with Ford or segment leading Chevrolet. This back when there were clearly deliniated car segments like the “low priced three.” Because Plymouth had been tied to being attached to other Chrysler franchises, such as Dodge, DeSoto, Chrysler, it never got the golden opportunity to sell ITSELF by ITSELF, (since WPC chose March 1930 to make Plymouth a Frnachise sale with ANY other Chrysler brand, where it had been attached to Chrysler dealers only prior to this) as did Ford and Chevrolet! You might also keep in mind that the DeSoto brand was most closely associated with the Plymouth Brand, even though DeSoto had been moved up in pricing. However, it too was neglected in the Corporate hierarchy. It left some great marks, but never got the attention that it should have gotten either.
One thing that has not ever been mentioned, but should be pointed out, is that Chrysler brand buyers tend to stay with Chrysler brand cars. Not like Ford or Chevrolet buyers, which do tend to move from one car to another. General Motors recognzied that early on, with Durant organizing it along the 5 car line. Making it APPEAR that the cars were TOTALLY different in pricing and equipment thereby influencing the move about buyers into believing they were moving around, as they saw themselves, moving up. When, in fact, they were just jumping around the GM frying pan, leaping into their fires. It was a great sales thing, and one that worked extremely well for GM. Ford was, as usual very late in arriving at that conclusion. For his part, Chrysler sought to compete with GM, even in 1924 when he started, knowing that he needed the 5 lines to do so. Unfortunately, he left as head of the company before firmly establishing the DIFFERENCES between his car marques, while GM made tons of advertising fodder over how DIFFERENT a Pontiac was from a Chevrolet or an Oldsmobile.
Chrysler didn’t help itself either when Dodge was acquired, and DeSoto and Plymouth were invented by WP Chrysler to compete with GM. Much of the chassis, engines, and bodywork were still being built looking like Chalmers and Maxwells. At that point, Dodge was in the middle price range, with DeSoto directly under it, and Plymouth at the bottom. Much of the differences between the marques were engineering and engines. (note: the IMPERIAL was just a gussied up Chrysler, albeit, a very NICE gussied up Chrysler, it was NOT a seperate marque like Cadillac or Lincoln) So at that point, Chrysler only had 4 lines of cars, with Dodge (1929 figures) being the number one seller. Many faithful Dodge buyers deserted the brand, either moving fully downward to Plymouth, DeSoto, or worse, jumping ship to buy Hudsons, Oldsmobiles or, Cadillacs! Even prior to the actual October 1929 Stock Market Melt down and the beginning of the huge world wide money depression, people WERE husbanding their purchases OR spending it wildly. Making the situation even tougher was the Ford Model A, which was selling like hot cakes at a fire sale for Henry Ford, even leaving Chevrolet wondering where their sales went!
I think it would be a good idea to email this page (exclude the responses) the to Chrysler and let them know there are alot of Plymouth fans out there. They won’t know that there are people out there who wants to buy a PLYMOUTH! NOT A DODGE, CHRYSLER, RAM OR JEEP, BUT A PLYMOUTH! Unless some-one tells them. There are a lot of Plymouths on the road. When I first read the new dealership thing I was so happy! I thought it was true. Even if the brand isn’t completely revived, it would make a difference to see models with the Plymouth in their name.
For April 1 ideas: how about Toyota and Honda being in chapter 11? ;-) Or DeSoto returns from the ashes?
I wonder if Sergio Marchionne read the Allpar weblog about your Chrysler to Plymouth idea, who knows if he might have a 2nd tought?
Based on their reaction to the leaks that have occurred so far, they’d probably try to do the opposite… there seems to be no small degree of petulance in some parts of the company.
For every one that would like to see Plymouth be revived here is a online petition you can sign: http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/plymouth